A Fate Deferred
by TheHeckhound
Summary: A god-like being threatens to destroy the DC Universe with an endless army of droids. Can Earths greatest heroes prevent the ultimate apocalypse? Is their Universe truly destined for an end or can they prevent destiny and defy a god?
1. Another Day in Gotham

Chapter One- The Iron Soldier (Part I)

Location: Gotham, abandon factory

Time: May 30th, 12:23 AM

The factory was dark and still. It was normally quiet, but tonight the silence is broken by laughter. Batman, lurking in the shadows and just arriving to see the event, was a little confused and yet slightly amused.

The Riddler was tied up and hanging upside down over a large boiling pot of chemicals. The Joker was standing on a metal walkway above him holding a remote.  
Joker: (Annoyance and laughter in his voice) "What?! Suddenly out of riddles dear Riddler?"  
Riddler: (Face going from fearful to delighted) "No... I've got one. What can see without eyes... and move about a room without touching the floor?"

The Joker pauses and taps his chin as he thinks to himself.  
Joker: "...Sees without eye... move about a room without touching the floor... hmmm... a pelican...no... polar bear... no... octopus... no..."

Batman steps out of the shadows behind the Joker.  
Batman: "Need a hint Joker?"

The Joker jumps from the surprise and turns to see the dark knight. "OH! I get it! A bat!"

Batman: "Couldn't play nice?"  
Joker: "I was going to make this my secret hideout. Then he had to show up and ruin it!"  
Riddler: "Not so secretive after all huh?"  
Joker: "Shut up you! In fact, shut up for good!"

The Joker slams his finger down on a button on the remote and the Riddler slowly starts lowering toward the pot. Batman quickly pushes Joker out of the way and jumps off the walkway. in midair, he takes out a batarang and lands on the Riddler. Both Riddler and Batman swing past the pot and Batman cuts the rope. Batman shoots a grappling hook up at the ceiling as Riddler hits the ground with a hard thud. Batman rises upward and lets go in time to land back next to Joker on the pathway.

Joker: "Why batsy, I'm starting to think you have an infatuation with me! Honestly do have a life outside that costume of yours? How'd you even find me?!"

A small ball of light appeared twenty feet behind Joker. It made a low humming noise that got both of their attention. As they both looked toward it, beams of light randomly came out and disappeared. the ball of light slowly grew larger and the humming got louder. Then it instantaneously grew, filling the room in a blinding flash. The light faded and the humming was gone. In the spot where the ball of light had appeared, now stood a large droid. It was roughly twenty feet tall. Its torso looked like half the top of a sphere with a smaller half a sphere underneath. The legs connected on the sides where the bottom half was smaller. They were rounded and the feet were like thick upside down dinner plates. The arms where like the feet except with two thick fingers, like a lobster. The head was simply a thick disk, seven inches thick with a five inch red lens for an eye. The head rotated on a soda can like neck. The entire droid was a whitish silver.

Batman's eyes quickly looked at the robot's chest. There was writing that said 'HC-MII'.


	2. The Iron Soldier

Chapter One- The Iron Soldier (Part II)

Location: Gotham, abandon factory

Time: May 30th, 12:29 AM

Batman inspected the droid and didn't know what to make of it. It didn't move at first. Then its red eye glowed brighter and its disk like head turned left, paused, then right, and another pause. Then the head turned toward the Joker. Batman realised it couldn't be one of Joker's toys and quickly sprang into action as the droid took a single step forward and swung at the Joker with one of its massive arms. Batman grabbed Joker by the shoulders and pulled him backward as the arm missed by nearly an inch. Batman pulled out a grapple hook and shot it up into a pipe attached to the ceiling. He was about to grab Joker and escape the droid, but the droid had already taken another step forward and brought its other arm around, smashing both Joker and Batman through the metal safety bars of the pathway. Joker hit the side of the pot and hit the ground unconscious. Batman was pulled upward by his bat-line and hung from the ceiling in pain.

The large droid stepped off the pathway and hit the ground with a hard crushing sound as part of the floor slightly collapsed. The droid stepped out of the hole and continued forward without hesitation. Stepping over Joker as if he weren't even there, the droid would have just as easily or cared just as much to have stepped on his head. It focused it's attention on Batman. It walked under him and tilted back slightly to look directly upward. Batman continued to hang there and wait for the droid's next action, but it just waited. After ten minutes had passed with no other idea, Batman tapped a button on the side of his mask to call up the Watch Tower.

Batman: "J'onn, you have any reports of a missing robot."

J'onn: "You too Batman? Whats your current situation?"

Batman: "'You too?' You mean I'm not the only one?"

J'onn: "I've been getting reports every five minutes for the passed hour from league members all over the world. Are you in any danger?"

Batman: "I think I might be able to handle myself. But just in case. Can you locate the two other life signs in my location?"

J'onn: "I've got them."

Batman: "In five minutes, transport all three of us up to the station and have a security team waiting for my two guests."

J'onn: "Understood."

Batman pulled out his batarang and held it tightly in his hand. He dropped from the ceiling and slammed the end of the batarang as hard as he could into the droids eye. The lens cracked slightly, but there was no significant effect. Batman slid off and landed on the ground. He stood only to kneel down again to avoid a swing from one of it's arms. Batman stood and started to move away from the droid, but it brought its other arm forward. It swung forward and upward with its fist pointing downward, the back of the arm collided with Batman and sent him flying through the air. He landed on his back and slid several feet. He struggled to get up, but his body was covered in bruises. He had taken two hits from the droid in the passed twelve minutes and each hit was like being hit by a truck. He continued to struggle and manged to get to his knees as the droid continued to walk toward him. The droid started to reach out its arm to grab him as it got closer. Batman forced himself to his feet and turned to walk, but he could only force his legs to move a slow step at a time. He felt himself collapsing again, but the droid got to him first. Two large metal claws reached around his waist and lifted him into the air. Batman pushed down on the claws, but they were locked in place. The droid flung him through the air. Batman went clear across the factory, hitting a wall with an abrupt stop. Batman lingered on the now dented wall for a few seconds before continuing his descent. Before he could hit the ground, which would have been the finishing blow, Batman felt light headed and weightless. A bright light washed over him. He didn't feel an impact. Instead, he felt a cold glass underneath him. Before passing out, he could hear J'onn's voice ordering for a medical team. The background was filled with voices, radio communications. It was only a few at first, but the numbers continued to grow until all that could be heard were hundreds of heroes and citys calling out for help.


	3. Fall of the Titans

Chapter Two- Invasion (Part I, Fall of the Titans)

Location: Titan Tower

Time: May 30th, 1:30 AM

The alarm was sounding and the Titans were forced from their rest. Robin was the first one dressed and activating the view screen to see what was going on. Cyborg and Starfire entered the room at the same time, followed by Raven. Beastboy stumbled in last, dragging his feet and struggling to stay awake.

Beastboy: "Dude, why do super villains have to commit crime at night?"

Robin (studying the view screen): "It looks like some sort of robot army is attacking the city."

Cyborg (also looking at the view screen): "Sounds like Slade, but those aren't his kind of robots."

Starfire (counting the robots in her head): "There are so many..."

Robin: "Come on, we have a city to save!"

No sooner did the Titans start heading for the exit did a second alarm go off. The Tower was under attack. The front door smashed open and an HC-MKII let itself in. It was joined by a new type of droid. The CC-MKVI droids looked like small, robotic, six legged spiders. They were only three feet in length and one foot wide. They didn't have a head, just a large camera lens on the front. Their legs were like sickles and appeared to be their only weapon. The CC-MKVI droids swarmed like ants around the HC-MKII. The walls, ceiling, and floor were being covered with hundreds of them. The Titans made their way to the front entrance where Cyborg began typing on a keypad attached to the wall, shutting a secondary door and locking down the Tower. Five of the CC-MKVI droids made it past the second door before it closed. Raven used her telekinetic powers to disassemble two of the droids. Starfire blasted another away, and Beastboy quickly turned into a Wholly Mammoth and stomped the remaining two. They cracked and made a hissing noise under his large feet.

The Titans moved back into the control room to think up a new tactic instead of facing the swarm head on. As they entered the room, their eyes were quickly drawn to the windows. There was a repetitive metallic tapping against the glass as the windows were covered by CC-MKVIs. The robotic spiders nearly blocked out all sight of the outside world.

Beastboy: "This... is not... good."

The glass of the windows began to crack with every step of the spider droids.

Robin: "...Cyborg. Lets hit them before they hit us."

Cyborg: "Got it."

Cyborg activated his arm cannon and blasted away at the window. The glass shattered and sent most of the droids heading hundreds of feet to the ground. The rest of the droids came swarming in. The Titans were hitting the droids with all they had. Beastboy even turned into a gorilla and started tossing furniture at the droids, but there was just too many of them. They had to retreat further into the Tower and eventually upward onto the roof. Shutting the entrance to the roof, the Titans seemed safe, but the CC-MKVI droids were climbing up over the sides. Robin used up all his ranged weapons and was having to take on the droids with his staff. His staff wasn't doing enough damage to armored spiders and the leader of the Titans was tackled, over run, and disappeared under a massive pile. Starfire screamed for him as she blasted away at the droids. She lowered to the droid level and began pulling them off by hand and tossing them away. The deeper she got, the more CC-MKVIs surrounded her and before long, she met the same fate as her love interest. Raven tried to help her by using her powers to move individual droids through the air. Smashing them into the pile, she knocked off several layers, but to no effect. Cyborg was doing the best of the group. Every one of the droids that came at him was blasted away. Cyborg suddenly felt the ground underneath his feet lift upward and a large mechanical arm came up out of the floor and grabbed him by the leg. It was a HC-MKII. It pulled Cyborg down through the roof as he turned his arm on the larger droid and blasted it with little effect to its dense armor. The smaller droids that he was blasting away on the roof were now free to pile into the hole and land on top of him. The sound of his cannon came to a stop. Raven and Beastboy took off into the air. Any attempt to save their friends was futile and would only result in them meeting the same fate. Beastboy, who was in pterodactyl form, flew in front and headed over the ocean to the city where he landed on the roof of another building and changed back to himself. Raven hovered next to him, both their faces showed their grief.

Beastboy: "What... what do we do now?"


	4. City Under Siege

Chapter Two- Invasion (Part II, City Under Siege)

Chapter Two- Invasion (Part II, City Under Siege)

Location: New York City

Time: May 32nd, 8:12 PM

The invasion had been going on for two days. At first, the attack came all at once. Every major city around the world was being invaded by some sort of robot army that appeared out of nowhere. Earth's superheroes were quick to act, but in the end, it always took military assistance to hold victory over the invaders. After enough of the robots were destroyed, the entire invading army would disappear, leaving no evidence that they had even been there other then the damage to buildings and other objects. Not a single corpse could be found, human or droid. It was as if all of the victims went with them. Now, attacks were focused. The unknown army attacked one location at a time. It always seemed random. The army would appear out of nowhere, be defeated, disappear, and two hours latter another place was under full attack by an equally or sometimes more powerful wave. The last place attacked was a town in Nebraska. The battle only lasted a few hours, but the constant attacks were wearing the military and the superheroes thin. Up to this point, millions of people were missing, no evidence to their fate. With those people include twelve known superheroes. Robin, Cyborg, and Starfire of the Teen Titans, Captain Marvel, Booster Gold, Steel, Black Canary, Plastic Man, Green Arrow, Wildcat, Huntress, and Vixen had all vanished.

Now, Now York City was under attack. The Justice League was organizing the superheroes who would be helping to repel the invaders. Due to the circumstances, several heroes who would normally be turned away by the Justice League, heroes who wouldn't normally join the Justice League, and even villains interested in helping the cause were acting as temporary members.

Superman slammed backwards into the side of a car. Glass sprayed the ground as he made a two foot indent. A model HC-MKII droid slowly walked toward him. Superman pulled himself out of the car and stood in defense. As the droid swung at him again, he evaded and punched at its armored torso. His fist impacted with enough force to shatter a skull, but only dented the surface. The droids arm came crushing down upon him, driving Superman into the ground. Man-Bat, one of the several temporary members, flew out of the sky and landed on top of the droid. The droids arms flung upward to grab him, but he avoided them effortlessly. The attack from the giant bat monster, distracted the droid long enough for Superman to stand back up and begin pounding into the droid once more. His fists repeated on the armor like a drum, leaving dent after dent. Man-Bat ended its distraction and flew off to attack one of the smaller droids nearby. CC-MKVI droids were everywhere. They were like three foot long, three legged spiders with one large eye in the front. They were small and weak, but came in amazing numbers. Man-Bat picked one up by one of its blade like legs and carried it upward into the sky before dropping it back down to Earth where it exploded on impact with the ground. At the same time, the much larger and more human like droid Superman was fighting with collapsed backward onto the ground causing the concrete to break. It took a good bit of effort to take the HC-MKII droids down. It wasn't very satisfying though because there were always more. Superman looked from side to side as two more HC-MKII droids approached.

The Flash passed by Superman and the two HC-MKII droids as he ran through the streets, his shock-wave destroying hundreds of the CC-MKVI droids. Destroying the spider droids wasn't actually on purpose though and he didn't even notice Superman. The Flash was being chased by a group of droids, that could actually keep up. A new model of droids had made their appearance when the battle for the city began. They seemed to have actually been designed to fight the Flash in particular. Their name, printed on the side, only encouraged the thought and made it easier to figure out the meaning of the letters, FC-MKI.

As the Flash ran, an energy tunnel followed close beside him. A three foot wide ball of metal moved through the tunnel allowing it to keep up with the Flash. The tunnel itself, which looked like a yellow worm hole, was generated by another three foot wide ball of metal somewhere in the city. The balls of metal were the FC-MKI droids themselves. The only physical characteristic to them was that they were spheres and had the letters F, C, M, K, and I in black on the side. It was unknown how they created the energy tunnels that allowed them to carry each other fast enough to catch the Flash, how they floated, or how they even always knew where the Flash was. Flash was having a hard time avoiding the one next to him. He hadn't known many people, or things, that could keep up with him like these balls. Their speed wasn't his real concern though. He slowed down as the smooth ball of metal floated in front of him on his right.

The energy tunnel slowed in response to him and small yellow lasers shot from the FC-MKI droid at the Flash. He dodged side to side as the lasers missed and picked up speed once more to catch up with the ball of metal. He reached out to push the droid out of the tunnel, but the droid increased in speed and avoided his hand. A laser hit him in the shoulder causing him to scream in pain and slow down once more to avoid being hit again. As he slowed, the distance between him and the droid grew making it easier to dodge the lasers. Flash held his shoulder and knew he couldn't take a lot of those shots, but he decided to give it another try anyway. There seemed to be nothing else for him to do. He increased his speed once more to catch up with the droid.

The tunnel, ever increasing in length, quickened also to allow the metal ball inside to avoid Flash. Flash got closer and closer to the droid as the lasers whizzed passed him. He couldn't tell where exactly the lasers were coming from which meant he had to be careful of where he pushed the droid. He reached out his hand and inched closer and closer to the droid. A laser passed between two of his fingers and he moved his head to the side just in time to avoid being hit. He could feel his hand slowly reaching into the yellow energy tunnel. He could also feel the speed force begin to build. He could see the lasers coming directly out of the metal of the droid as he dodged them. He started to feel his fingers on the droid when a laser hit him in the arm. He winced at the pain, but tried not to think about it as more of his hand got onto the ball. With a quick jerk of his hand, he pushed the ball sideways out of the tunnel. The ball collided with a street light and exploded as the Flash slowed and the tunnel evaporated. Two other tunnels shot passed Flash on his left and right. When he thought about having to do the same trick again, he almost gave up until he realized that instead of having to defeat the droids traveling through the energy tunnels, he could simply follow the tunnel back to the droid generating it.


	5. Fastest Man Alive

Chapter Two- Invasion (Part III, Fastest Man Alive)

Chapter Two- Invasion (Part III, Fastest Man Alive)

Location: New York City

Time: May 32nd, 8:19 PM

Flash had never clashed with anything like them. The FC-MKI droids seemed like just floating large silver balls of metal, but their ability to create visible energy tunnels allowed them to carry each other at the same speed the Flash could run... possibly faster. Added on their ability to shoot lasers out of any area of their simple body design made them formidable. They weren't the worst thing he had ever had to take on, but they were unarguably the most stressful and challenging. The last time, he tried to fight one by simply pushing it out of the energy tunnel. It had worked, but he received injury at the same time. He couldn't risk doing it again so he decided to go to the source.

As he swerved in between the much larger droids, he could see three floating FC-MKI droids hovering ahead of him at the end of the street. As he got closer, he could see that two were still generating their tunnels while the one to the left wasn't. It was obviously the one whose partner he had recently destroyed. The lone droid began firing lasers at him. He dodged with ease and thought taking it out would be easier then its partner, when it suddenly generated and energy tunnel directly at the Flash. Flash was going somewhere around seventy miles an hour when it hit him. He could feel his speed drop rapidly until he could barely keep at five. The two droids that he had given the slip to earlier finally arrived behind him as they floated through the tunnels being created by their partners. With the Flash going much slower, they had no problem firing their lasers at him. Flash kept running toward the one slowing him down, but he felt like a slug. Lasers entering the tunnel slowed down just enough for him to run past him, but it was only a mater of time until he was finished.

The Flash kept pushing himself harder. He could feel himself gaining speed, but the droid pushing him increased how much energy it was using to slow him. He increased to seven miles an hour, only to be pushed down to four. The lasers were getting closer as he slowed. One managed to be at pace with him, but missed by only a few inches. Flash pushed onward as hard as he could. He began sweating as he reached eight miles an hour. The annoying ball of metal wasn't much further. The sweat continued to pour from his body. He began breathing heavily and panting as he slowed back down to five miles an hour. A laser hit him in his right leg and he screamed in pain, but he continued on at the same speed. He wouldn't give up, he couldn't. If he did, he would surly end up as ...the other heroes. The ones who had recently gone missing.

As the thought entered his mind, it made him angry. For a short time there, he had been scared that this may be his end, but now he was furious. As he continued to think of all the people who had simply disappeared, innocent people who didn't deserve whatever had happened to them, his speed dramatically increased to ten miles an hour. He came up on the FC-MKI like a charging rhino. He punched forward as hard as he could. His fist smashed into its metallic structure. He could hear the electronics inside being crushed. At the very same time, the energy field shutdown and he had slammed the droid into a brick wall fifty feet away faster then an average human could blink their eyes. As he removed his fist and the droid crumbled to the ground, he turned his focus on the other four. His teeth grinding in his mouth, the two droids generating the energy tunnels vanished in a red blur. The other two in the energy tunnels dropped slightly as the tunnels vanished. They could see the Flash coming toward them and opened fire, but they weren't fast enough and also met the same fate as the other FC-MKI droids.

Just as quickly as it had begun, all the droids, both standing and destroyed, simply vanished. Each one glowed slightly before blinking out of existence. The Justice League still had no idea where they vanished to. For now, it seamed impossible to find out. It was incredibly discourageing. All the heroes could do was go home and heal their wounds. Then wait for the next attack.


	6. Legend's End

Chapter Three- The Fall (Part I, Legend's End)

Chapter Three- The Fall (Part I, Legend's End)

Location: The Watch Tower

Time: June 5th, 3:07 PM

Superman: "We have to figure out where they are coming from. Both our forces and the military are wearing down. We can't keep this up. I don't think even I can keep up with the attacks much longer."

Green Lantern: "I know what you mean. I'm running on at least three hours of sleep each night. Then I wake up just to fight more of those freakin robots. Batman, didn't you say you discovered something?"

There was a large table in the center of the dimly lit room. Around the table were twelve super heroes. Some were part of the original Justice League, others were temporary members brought in as more help was needed and the world became more desperate for any hand that could help. Still, there were others in the room that didn't seem to belong at all, but were recently allowed to help after proving themselves useful. Each one of them looked like they could pass out at any moment. All except one.

Batman: "Yes, but I don't think you'll like it."

Wonder Women: "Bad news is better then no news."

Batman: "In the past three days, each battle I've been in, I put a tracking device one of the robots before it could disappear again. Each device would travel out of signal, so I used more and more powerful deep space satellites to locate where the devices were going..."

Superman: "...and."

Batman: "And they don't seem to be going anywhere inside our galaxy. They disappear and reappear with each battle. I can't trace their origin."

Lex Luthor: "Perhaps I might have the better technology for finding where our enemy is coming from."

Everyone glared toward Luthor. They didn't trust him, but ever since his company fell under attack, his technological know how made him a great asset.

Superman: "I don't think that will be necessary."

Luthor: "You still don't trust me do you?"

Superman: "Luthor, I'd think you just as likely to join them..."

Luthor: (interrupting) "I saved half your lives in New Jersey when the ships started dropping them on your heads!"

The alarms started going off.

Martian Manhunter: "That's the intruder alert!"

Hawk Girl: "We're under attack!"

The heroes rushed out of the room and to the nearest points of entrance. Several pathways had been drilled into the station and six legged, spider like, robots were pouring in like water from a fire hose. From the large windows around the station, six ships could be seen attached to the Watch Tower. Each ship was roughly the size of an air craft carrier. They were elongated and resembled the front half of purple and darkish blue metallic whales. They seemed to have an unlimited amount of robots inside whenever they attacked, and all attacks against them seemed futile against their force fields.

When they reached the central area of the Watch Tower, hundreds of people were battling against the tides of metal. The endless flow was destroying the will to fight just as fast as the amounts of casualties were. Green Lantern and Hawk Girl flew above the major battle and focused their attention on a long tube attached to the side that the robots were coming from. It was roughly ten feet in diameter. They had already discussed the possibility of entering the ships to destroy them, days before. Green Lantern created a walking path to separate them from the robots as they traveled up the tube and into the ship.

Superman was making his own way up a separate tube. He made his way through like a bullet traveling out a barrel filled with ants. Inside the ship he found a large room where the robots were entering to travel out the tube. He traveled down a hallway to find a much larger room with several conveyor belts carrying the robots in different directions. He could see a bright light coming from another room down a hall were all the conveyor belts emerged. The inside of the ship strongly matched the outside. There seemed to be no life support and it was mostly a large empty shell with a few machines and conveyor belts. The robots inside the ship didn't seem to notice him and he assumed they were inactive until they exited the ship. He began looking around for any important systems he could destroy. As he made his way down the hall where the main conveyor belt was feeding the CC-MKVI robots from, he could hear the Lantern and Hawk Girl arguing over something. He could just about see the green bubble supporting them when everything went bright.

There was a loud buzzing sound in his ears as he felt himself falling. He was light headed and couldn't remember anything that had just happened. It was as if he had blacked out. As he opened his eyes, he could see large pieces of metal falling with him. It was pieces of the ship. It had exploded with Green Lantern, Hawk Girl, and him inside. He hoped they were alright and that Lantern was able to shield both her and himself from the blast. As he continued to fall, he saw five objects coming at him at a high rate of speed. He used his super vision to see that they were humanoid robots. At closer examination, he could read 'SMC-MKI' written on their chests. They had been studying the robots ever since they first appeared and although they had yet to figure out the full meaning of the letters, he knew immediately what the 'S' stood for. They were designed for him.

Superman slowed gradually and flew back up at the robots. He was caught by surprise when a powerful laser beam hit him and began pushing him back. Nine other beams soon hit him and accelerated him toward the ground. He landed on top of a car in an abandon street. His entire body was in pain. When the beams stopped, he could see that each of the five robots had a small laser gun attached to each shoulder. Superman ignored his pain and flew at one of the robots as fast as he could. he brought his fist to it with all his might and knocked it out of the sky. He felt the painful burn of a force field on his fist. The sight of the robot digging itself out of the side of a building confirmed that the robots would be a challenge. As the four still in the air fired on him, he moved to evade and was glade he still had one major advantage on them. They could shoot lasers, they could fly, and they had personal skin tight force fields making them almost as tough as him, but they weren't as fast. They still outnumbered him, so he wasn't too relieved.

He flew forward and brought his fist to another one and had the same effect as the last. It gave a momentary satisfaction, but he couldn't win that way. They would just continue to get up and attack him again. He needed to get rid of their force fields. He had an idea, but didn't know if it would work. With little other choices, he went with it. He flew as fast as he could away from the robots. All five followed in close pursuit. Small jet packs unfolded from their backs and propelled them at matching speeds. Superman used his heat vision to slow them down, but it lacked any effect on them other then showing a glittering green light where it came in contact with their force fields. Superman looked ahead and could see a long row of power lines. He hoped an electrical surge would hold better results.

As he flew through the wires, he disconnected one side with his heat vision. The wires fell and collided with three of the five robots traveling through. The robots halted and Superman closed his eyes for a moment and listened to the sound of three metallic bodies fall to the ground. He opened them and flew at one of the remaining robots. He drove his fist into the robot as hard as he could and knocked it into one of the downed power lines. The electricity blurred its force field until it sizzled away. The robot inside seemed unharmed, until Superman's heat vision instantly melted it. With the same precision and effectiveness, he erased the other three robots that he had managed to down.

Two lasers hit Superman in the back, and in his weakened state, he screamed in agony and fell to the Earth. The robot landed over top of him and rolled him over; then began punching him in the face. Each hit was like his own. Superman managed to grab one of the robot's arms and flip it over his head. It collided with the ground and Superman was instantly over top of it, performing the same attack. He felt the robot's force field weakening with each hit, but so was his strength. He continued to punch with everything he had. His fist bled and his entire body started to go numb. With each hit, all he could think about was how tired he was. He could feel himself slipping more and more into unconsciousness. He willed himself to stay awake as hard as he could. He went light headed and his mind began to drift.

He could no longer feel the heat of the force field on his fists. He couldn't feel anything. "Need... to... stay.. awake..." he said to himself as he felt the last of his strength leave him. Then, when he could no longer swing his arm, he heard a metallic crunch underneath his fist. The sound was so satisfying and seemed to release a large burden from his life. He gently fell to the side and was about to allow the sweat embrace of unconsciousness wash over him when he heard the metallic sound of hundreds of robots gathering around him. They were the same kind from the ship. He could tell from the distinctive sound of their six blade-like legs. He tried his best to stand, but could barely even open his eyes. Once again, there was a bright light. He felt cold, but then warmth hit him like the sunlight on the beach. It was comfortable. He felt amazing. In his mind, he accepted that he was dead. He had fought so hard and saved so many lives, but it was over. He just hoped his friends would be able to finish the fight without him. Then he felt something. Dirt... No... A thick sand of some kind. He could feel the robots clinging to him release their grasp and begin to scatter in different directions. He heard gun shots and shouting. He heard one of the robots around him explode. He tilted his head and opened his eyes to see a large battle going on. A group of people ran over to him and began dragging him across the sand. He could see a massive line of robots behind them following closely before an artillery round blew the line in half. Everything blurred and he passed out.


	7. Behind the Curtain

Chapter Three- The Fall (Part II, Behind the Curtain)

Location: Unknown

Time: June 6th

Superman's eyes slowly opened to the well lit room. He felt like he had been asleep for days. His entire body was sore and his muscles ached. As his eyes darted around the room, everything slowly came into focus. There were three people standing around him. One looked like a knight from the middle ages without the helmet, there was a woman in brightly colored cloths and long brown hair, and there was another woman with large hair and a long snout...

His head raised in order to get a better look. His vision cleared and there stood in the room a minotaur at average human height and the hair was really just long ram like horns. It had a look of intelligence and was even wearing pants. Superman had seen strange things before so after the initial shock of seeing it, he was able to quickly push its presence out of his head. Instead, he turned toward the woman whose bright colored cloths reminded him of his own costume.

"Try to relax." The woman said to him in a soft almost whispering voice. "The process of teleporting with those things is very tiring."

Superman: "What happened? Where am I? What happened to Green Lantern and Hawkgirl?"

The woman looked over to the knight with a raised eyebrow in a silent way of asking him what Superman was talking about. The knight shrugged his shoulders and said allowed that they hadn't found anyone else.

Amber, the woman standing beside Superman's bed placed her hands on his shoulders and eased him back down as he tried to get up. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions and I'll try my best to answer them, but you really need to rest." Superman realised that the woman was stronger then him, that he was currently powerless and quite human. He wasn't worried about that as much as he was for the safety of the other two heroes that were in the ship with him when it exploded. Superman calmed himself and allowed the woman to continue.

Amber: "We found you out in the open surrounded by drones. The small six legged ones are weaker then their brothers but they come in larger numbers and can pull people through with them when they come back here."

Superman: "And where is here?"

Amber: "We call this place the multiverse. It used to be a world like any of ours but the original inhabitants are gone."

There was a brief pause as she looked over to the knight and back to Superman.

"Well, most of them are gone. They were a very advanced race as far as we could tell. They went into a civil war and somehow destroyed the very fabric of their universe. It became a nexus point. Stuff from other universes just started falling through and filled in the holes. The original inhabitants were called the Deus. Only one full blooded Deus is left."

Her eyes again looked over to the knight. Although he wore the armor of another world, his appearance was a lie. Hunter was a quarter Deus; his grandfather was one of the last survivors of the civil war. Although Hunters family was gone, he was not the last. The other Deus was who Amber was really talking about.

Amber: "His name is Terminus. The war between the Deus was to decide the fate of the less advanced universes like ours. One group wanted to watch over us while the others wanted to destroy us whenever any one race became too advance. Terminus, the last of his kind, has picked up where his people had left off. He pulled those machines out of the ashes of this world and started sending them into others. He steals away people like us to force into slavery or keep as trophies. Then they build large towers throughout your world."

Amber's voice started to crack. Her face began to turn red and tears started to build in her eyes.

"And then they will rip apart your world like they did mine."

Hunter quickly moved forward and turned her toward him. He whispered something in her ear and she shook her head. She took a deep breath and turned back toward Superman. "We are the resistance. We all come from different worlds and ended up here the same way you did. Before they could drag you into their ship and carry you back to Terminus's temple, we ambushed them and saved you. Right now your riding in our base of operations. Our home. We call it the Massive." She smiled as she tried to describe it. "Its like a city inside a four legged walking behemoth."

She reached over Superman and taped a panel on the wall. The wall changed translucent and he could see that he was as high off the ground as if he was in a skyscraper. He also noticed that they were moving. Even though he felt nothing, the entire structure seemed to be moving from side to side as if it really were walking on four legs.

Hunter: "There used to be hundreds of them. The good guys used to build all their cities in 'em to keep the others like Terminus from attacking. They were all destroyed except this one. Found it abandon out in the middle of nowhere. Just needed some repairs and it was good as new. Now Ol' T. M.'s robots can't even touch us and the Massive just steps on anything stupid enough to get in our way."

Hunter put a hand on Superman's shoulder. "Don't worry buddy. We're heading toward Terminus's house as we speak and the Massive is going to knock extra hard on his front door. If your friends were captured, we'll find them. And when we get there and if you've gotten your strength back by then, you can help us put a stop to this once and for all." Hunter took his hand away and started toward the door. Superman gripped his fist and thought about what he had just been told. It was a bit extreme, but nothing he couldn't handle. He hoped he would have his strength back soon. Who ever Terminus was, he was going to be surprised when he learned who he was messing with; Superman thought. The man of steel is coming for him.


End file.
